A man and his dog were rescued from their sinking houseboat on the Gorge Waterway Friday morning.
The Saanich and Victoria police departments joined forces in the early hours of Dec. 27 after reports came in about a sinking boat near the west side of the Tillicum bridge.
Officers from both jurisdictions responded just after 4:30 a.m. and saw that the boat had capsized and the man and his dog were clinging to the side.
Police threw a line to the man as the current pushed the boat closer to a nearby ladder. The man was told to try swimming to the ladder and officers assisted by towing him towards the shore.
A VicPD K9 officer then climbed down the ladder to meet the man and shielded him with his body so that the boat wouldn’t hit the man while he got out of the water.
After the man was out of the water, officers warmed him up with their coats while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. The man was treated by paramedics and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Saanich officers were also able to safely rescue the man’s dog.
The boat that the man and his dog were living on was swept away and no updates have been provided by police on its status.
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